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Europhysics Letters (EPL)

Operational advantage of basis-independent quantum coherence

Zhihao Ma, Jian Cui, Zhu Cao, Shao-Ming Fei, Vlatko Vedral, Tim Byrnes, Chandrashekar Radhakrishnan

Published Apr 23, 2019• 41 citations
Publisher

Abstract

In the quantitative theory of quantum coherence, the amount of coherence is defined as the distance between the given state to the closest incoherent state. The set of incoherent states is conventionally defined as any state with a diagonal density matrix. One of the objections to this formulation is that the incoherent states are intrinsically basis-dependent, which makes the amount of coherence also a basis-dependent quantity. Basis-independent measures have recently been proposed where the incoherent state is taken as the maximally mixed state. We show that this is the only possible choice of reference incoherent state, without modifying the original definition of coherence. We find a relation between the two formulations by defining a contribution to the coherence due to the basis choice. The hierarchical relationship between quantum coherence and the various quantum correlations is explored in detail. Finally, we illustrate some operational uses of the basis-independent quantum coherence in quantum information theory tasks.

DOI
10.1209/0295-5075/125/50005

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In the quantitative theory of quantum coherence, the amount of coherence is defined as the distance between the given state to the closest incoherent state. The set of incoherent states is conventionally defined as any state with a diagonal density matrix. One of the objections to this formulation is that the incoherent states are intrinsically basis-dependent, which makes the amount of coherence also a basis-dependent quantity. Basis-independent measures have recently been proposed where the incoherent state is taken as the maximally mixed state. We show that this is the only possible choice of reference incoherent state, without modifying the original definition of coherence. We find a relation between the two formulations by defining a contribution to the coherence due to the basis choice. The hierarchical relationship between quantum coherence and the various quantum correlations is explored in detail. Finally, we illustrate some operational uses of the basis-independent quantum coherence in quantum information theory tasks.
In the quantitative theory of quantum coherence, the amount of coherence for given states can be meaningfully discussed only when referring to a preferred basis. One of the objections to this quantification is that the amount of coherence is an intrinsically basis-dependent quantity. This limitation can, however, be lifted when considering a set of quantum states invariant under arbitrary unitary transformations. Thus, we analyze a basis-independent definition of quantum coherence, and the incoherent state is taken as the maximally mixed state. We describe the relationship between the basis-independent and the basis-dependent approaches and give several applications to show the advantages of the former method. The relations among basis-independent coherence, quantum entanglement, and quantum discord are discussed by using the relative entropy within a multipartite system.
The coherence of an individual quantum state can be meaningfully discussed only when referring to a preferred basis. This arbitrariness can, however, be lifted when considering sets of quantum states. Here we introduce the concept of set coherence for characterizing the coherence of a set of quantum systems in a basis-independent way. We construct measures for quantifying set coherence of sets of quantum states as well as quantum measurements. These measures feature an operational meaning in terms of discrimination games and capture precisely the advantage offered by a given set over incoherent ones. Along the way, we also connect the notion of set coherence to various resource-theoretic approaches recently developed for quantum systems.
Quantum coherence is known as an important resource in many quantum information tasks, which is a basis-dependent property of quantum states. In this paper, we discuss quantum incoherence based simultaneously on k bases using Matrix Theory Method. First, by defining a correlation function m(e,f) of two orthonormal bases e and f, we investigate the relationships between sets I(e) and I(f) of incoherent states with respect to e and f. We prove that I(e)=I(f) if and only if the rank-one projective measurements generated by e and f are identical. We give a necessary and sufficient condition for the intersection I(e)⋂I(f) to include a state except the maximally mixed state. Especially, if two bases e and f are mutually unbiased, then the intersection has only the maximally mixed state. Secondly, we introduce the concepts of strong incoherence and weak coherence of a quantum state with respect to a set B of k bases and propose a measure for the weak coherence. In the two-qubit system, we prove that there exists a maximally coherent state with respect to B when k=2 and it is not the case for k=3.
Quantum coherence is a key resource in quantum information processing scenarios, and quantifying coherence is an important task for both quantum foundation and quantum technology. However, until now, all most of coherence measures are basis-dependent that does not accord with physical reality, since the physical properties of the physical system should not be changed with the different choice of coordinate systems. Here, we propose an \textit{intrinsic basis-independent quantum coherence measure} which satisfies all conditions for quantifying coherence. This measurement not only reveals physical essence of quantum coherence of the quantum state itself clearly, but also simplifies the measurement procedure by avoiding the optimization procedure of distance measure.
Quantum coherence is a key resource in quantum information processing scenarios, and quantifying coherence is an important task for both quantum foundation and quantum technology. However, until now, all most of coherence measures are basis-dependent that does not accord with physical reality, since the physical properties of the physical system should not be changed with the different choice of coordinate systems. Here, we propose an \textit{intrinsic basis-independent quantum coherence measure} which satisfies all conditions for quantifying coherence. This measurement not only reveals physical essence of quantum coherence of the quantum state itself clearly, but also simplifies the measurement procedure by avoiding the optimization procedure of distance measure.
Coherence of a quantum state (with respect to a fixed incoherent basis) is usually quantified by distancelike quantities, among which a particularly convenient and intuitive quantifier of coherence is based on the Hilbert-Schmidt distance between the quantum state and its dephased counterpart. This quantifier has a simple structure and many nice properties, although it is not a coherence monotone in the conventional resource-theoretic framework of coherence. Here we reveal its information-theoretic significance by showing that it coincides with uncertainty, as quantified by the variance of the state in the incoherent basis. The key point here is to regard the state as an observable, and to regard the incoherent basis as an ensemble of states rather than as measurement operators. Our result provides a natural decomposition of coherence into components along the incoherent basis. Furthermore, in terms of the Tsallis 2-entropy, which is also a measure of uncertainty, we provide two alternative interpretations of coherence: as increase of uncertainty caused by decoherence and as the conditional Tsallis 2-entropy in the context of purification. An intrinsic relation between the maximal coherence and the Brukner-Zeilinger invariant information is also established. These identifications of coherence with increase of uncertainty lead us to interpret coherence as a manifestation of quantum uncertainty, which may have implications for both quantum foundations and applications.